Mongolian Chop
by Frog-kun
Summary: Genderbent!AU. Hanazono Hikaru's eternal rival is Takishima Keiko. Little does he know that Keiko's been in love with him since they were children. A shojo romcom turned into a shonen romcom. Ecchi humour and harem antics abound, but nothing explicit here, folks!
1. one

**one;**

* * *

No matter what I do, I can't seem to stop thinking about her. I just can't get that cool smile of hers out of my head. Thinking of her, I always feel fired up on the inside.

That's right – Takishima Keiko is my rival!

* * *

Okay, I should back up and explain everything first. I'm not really used to keeping a journal (I refuse to call this thing a diary) although I did win second prize in a poetry competition once. Anyway, here goes:

My name is Hanazono Hikaru and I am the proud son of a carpenter. I also attend Hakusenkan and I have to work hard to keep up my grades. This is all for the sake of defeating my destined eternal rival. I bet I could beat her if I try. I think. I don't know, Takishima just pisses me off.

Some people might say it's pathetic for a guy to be so hung up on beating a girl, but those people obviously haven't met Takishima. I've just never seen her lose at anything in my life, and I should know, since I'm always the one coming second place. Damn her. She transcends gender.

(Actually, I think she's an alien. But when I said that to her face, she just smirked at me. What kind of answer is that? Seriously, you'd think Her Highness would grace me with a response.)

Looks like this turned into a rant. Sorry. I did have a purpose for writing all of that. See, something happened the other day that involved Takishima. Normally, I'd talk to my friends if there's something bothering me, but this really isn't something I can mention aloud. So pen, meet paper. Paper, meet pen.

Takishima and I are both in the Special A class, reserved for the top seven students in the school, so we come into contact with each other on a day-to-day basis. Not to mention we've known each other since we were kids. I was asked by one of the teachers to deliver some papers to Takishima so I went looking for her in our building. Our classroom was empty except for Takishima who was, um, how should I put this…?

She was kind of half-naked.

She was changing her clothes. I swear I didn't see anything! Well, I knew enough to realise she was undressed. So I promptly scrunched my eyes shut and hid my face behind my hands. Then the papers I was holding fell to the floor and made a shuffling noise.

I cursed my clumsiness. When Takishima looked up at me and made a coughing noise I knew I'd screwed up majorly. Sure, I've known Takishima for ages, but we're not _that _close.

The thing about Takishima, though, is that nothing ever seems to rattle her.

"Are you done freaking out yet?" she asked, or something to that effect.

Geez, how can a semi-naked girl succeed in looking so smarmy? She was totally laughing at my embarrassment! Stupid Takishima. I said I wasn't freaking out or anything. I totally yelled at her to make sure she got that point. But then she didn't move and it didn't look like she was about to put on her shirt (at least she was wearing a bra…) and at that point, I just felt like fleeing the room as fast as I could. Life sucks. But for some reason, my feet were frozen to the spot.

"It's just a bit of flesh, Number Two," said Takishima.

Okay, that pissed me off. "Don't call me Number Two!" Then I said, "Put on a shirt, you dumbass!"

"That's no way to talk to a lady."

"Argh! Shut up! Why are we having this conversation? Someone's gonna come in!"

Takishima chuckled as she _finally _put on her shirt. It appeared she was changing into her gym clothes. "This is why you'll always be Number Two, Hikaru."

I never get it when she says stuff like that. It's like she knows something that I don't.

"What are you saying, Takishima?"

"See those papers you dropped?" She inclined her head towards my feet and then flicked her long, brown hair behind her ear. She was so utterly cool and blasé. "Take a look at them."

I did; I smoothed out the fallen leaves of papers and squinted at the text on them. It was last month's midterm results.

As usual, Takishima had gotten perfect marks across the board. I had made one slight misspelling of a name on my history test, so I had dropped one mark in total. I was in second place in the entire school.

Normally, a person would be happy about scoring so well, but I wasn't entirely satisfied. The girl who had beaten me just smiled at me, as if amused by my efforts. Something told me she _enjoyed _seeing me squirm.

The weirdest part is how all the boys in school think she's so pretty and perfect. I'm not going to bother arguing with all of that, but I am going to say this: perfection is the benchmark just waiting to be surpassed.

That's how I feel about Takishima Keiko.

"I'm not gonna lose to you forever," I said to her. Every time I utter a sentence like that aloud, my resolve deepens. In fact, just writing it makes me pumped! I train and study hard every day just or the sake of keeping up with my rival.

And as for Takishima, well, she just laughed again.

As I write about this, it makes me think: sometimes, I really don't know what this girl thinks of me. Whenever I'm done getting mad over her beating me, I just can't help but wonder about a few things.

What does that smile of hers mean exactly?

* * *

I've been hanging out with Toudou Akira lately. Of course, everyone in S.A. has always been my friend, but these days, Toudou's been approaching me more. I bet this means we're better friends than ever.

The thing about Toudou is that even though she says she likes cute girls, she doesn't like Takishima very much either. (Then again, I wouldn't exactly call Takishima the epitome of moe.) Toudou especially doesn't like it when Takishima talks to me. I think she wants her to lose just as much as I want to win and for that reason, she's always on my side. We're partners in crime in a way.

I told her about Takishima beating me at midterms and she said, "You know how she's like. She's got a photographic memory."

That was true. Sometimes I wonder why Takishima bothers to come to school at all when she's clearly not learning anything new here. It's a little depressing for me to watch, actually.

"Listen," Toudou said to me. "Why are you so fixated on Takishima, anyway? It's good to have a goal and everything, but it's like your feelings for her are, you know…"

"What?"

"Oh, never mind." She waved her hand dismissively. "For someone so smart, you can be so dumb, Hikaru-kun."

There's only one thing to say to that.

"I'll just study even harder then!"

"It's not studying you need to do! Geez!" She huffed and looked at me exasperatedly. Uh oh. "I bet you didn't notice the ribbon I'm wearing today, huh?"

"Uh, what about it?"

"Ugh. What does it take for you to notice a girl?"

"I notice people whenever they talk to me or wave or something…"

For some reason, Toudou hit me after I said that and called me an idiot. We didn't speak of that confusing conversation afterwards and after that, I guess we were back to being friends.

Thinking back, though, it made me a little worried. Was this stupidity that Toudou was talking about related to the reason why I was always second to Takishima? I didn't know what to think of it. I know I have my flaws as a human being and so does Takishima, but it's never been a contest of personality between us. As far as I'm concerned, only skill and determination is what matters in the end.

If only I'd known what Toudou was talking about, though, it could have spared me a lot of grief. And not just me, Takishima too. I don't know if there's any real way I can make it up to her.

* * *

It all started when I decided to go off on a trip to the moments in order to train myself for the next battle. Me and Takishima have been having wrestling matches since we were six and as usual, I was very psyched up to beat her.

Actually, there's a funny story about how we met involving wrestling. When I was a kid, I got into pro-wrestling because my old man was really into it. I thought I was pretty hot stuff since I could beat any kid who challenged me. Anyway, it turns out Takishima's dad was a pro-wrestling fan too, so he introduced me to his kid Keiko. I was all like "Come at me, bro!" and then she just whooped my ass. It's funny when I recount it, but I really wasn't very amused at being beaten by a little girl at the time. Even though I'm bigger and heavier than Takishima, she still beats me every time through her sheer agility and skill.

Hence, the training trip to the mountains. I'd even picked out a waterfall to meditate under, and I was planning to teach myself to levitate through willpower alone, just like the Buddhist monks in movies. I reckoned it was the perfect plan. Since I wanted to catch Takishima off-guard with my strategy, I decided not to tell anyone but my dad, who said he was okay with keeping the secret.

Mind you, it's not like I don't trust my friends or anything. But when you have an eternal rival, you just can't involve anyone else. It's has to be man-to-man – er, man-to-woman, as the case may be. Anyway, this was just a fight between me and Takishima and no one else.

Training by myself was really exhausting but really fun and kind of fulfilling in a way. I've trained all my life and it always feels good when you feel yourself reaching out to a new level. Personally, I get really into it and lose track of my surroundings. That's what happened during my training camp. I don't know how much time elapsed since I wasn't keeping track of dates or anything. I got up, ate, trained, ate, trained some more and went to sleep. I liked that routine. The days went by in a blur – when I think of it now, it's nothing but a hazy memory. I think that's because everything blended together because I was only half-conscious most of the time.

You see, the problem was that in my eagerness I was only sleeping about maybe three hours a night. That was something I only realised on retrospect. The adrenaline was what kept me going throughout the day. I get what was wrong now, but if anyone had tried to explain that to me at the time, I don't think I would have heard them.

Just like I mentioned before, I meditated regularly under a waterfall. You'd think the water pressure would work better than any alarm clock, but before I knew it, I was feeling myself getting nodding off. Since I couldn't maintain sitting posture while asleep, as soon as I closed my eyes I crashed headfirst into the water. Even then I didn't wake up. The water came into my mouth and infiltrated my lungs. When I became unconscious I fell headfirst into a sea of black.

I really should have died.

When I came to, I was lying on my back on the rocks, and out of all people Takishima was the one sitting next to me. She was wearing nothing but her bra and panties. She was sitting on her knees squeezing the water out of her sodden dress. I couldn't help but stare – this was the second time in maybe a week since I had seen her in such a severe deficit in clothing.

I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I knew straight away what Takishima had done for me.

"You… rescued me…" As I spoke, I found myself coughing and spluttering. Since there had been water in my lungs earlier, it was painful to breathe.

I expected Takishima to handle this situation as coolly as ever, but when she turned to look me… How can I put this…?

She was absolutely livid.

Her thin eyebrows had creased together and the alarm just leaped out of her eyes. It hit me like a slap in the face.

"You _idiot_!" she hissed at me.

"It… It's fine, isn't it? I mean, I'm okay!" I didn't want Takishima to be mad at me. I had never realised she was so concerned for me.

And wait, just where the heck did she come from anyway?

Seeing the look of confusion on my face, Takishima explained haughtily: "I know how you think, Hikaru. I can read you like a book. When you were gone for a week, I knew you'd gone to the mountains to train."

I looked up and around at my surroundings. The waterfall I was training under was located at the bottom of a sheer cliff. Takishima must have scaled down a mountain just to save me.

I blinked, feeling numb. I had absolutely no idea what to think of that. Meanwhile, Takishima just kept frowning thunderously at me, looking less like a perfect, stoic beauty and more like…

… a girl.

I tried very hard to only look at her face from this point on.

"Hey, aren't you cold?" I asked her. Her nudity had a way of getting to me, just like last time. I was still wearing my clothes, and now that I had regained feeling, I could feel the cold water seeping through my shirt and into the pores of my skin. I shivered involuntarily, bringing my arms up to hug myself. "I'll get us a change of clothes, hang on."

I turned and walked away, not just to delve into the contents of my hiking backpack but to cover the spreading blush across my face. I just couldn't control it. I definitely didn't know how to handle Takishima at that moment.

For her part, she said nothing, and by the time I came back with the change of clothes, she looked like she was back to her usual calm self. At least she wasn't frowning anymore. "Here," I said, holding out one of my shirts for her. "It's a bit big for you, but it's better than nothing, at least."

She looked at it and snorted. "A Digimon T-shirt? I'd rather be naked, thanks."

"Shut up, you. Agumon will keep you warm!" I _really _didn't want to see more naked Takishima. I didn't think my fragile nerves could handle any more of it. I'd never really noticed before, but she has really long legs.

Smooth ones, too.

Ah, crap.

Seeing my pleading look, Takishima eventually obliged and was swallowed by the T-shirt. "You really are an idiot," she said.

Then she explained to me the consequences of me working so hard. Up till that point, I'd never realised she'd taken notice of what I did to train myself, but she seemed to have an idea about everything I did. It was morbidly fascinating listening to her. I could still feel the brush of death against my heart and when I gulped, the feeling still clung to my throat.

"Thanks, Takishima," I said.

Involuntarily, she jerked and made a funny, raspy noise, which she covered up with a cough.

"Um, you okay?" I asked. "You didn't get a cold because of me, did you?" My heart sank at the thought. Quickly, I leaned forward and touched our foreheads together. She blinked, for once not saying anything. Despite her strange behaviour, she seemed to be fine. But still… "You should get rest."

"So should you," she said quietly, casting her gaze towards the rocks.

"Well, okay," I said. "Let's sleep together."

Wryly, Takishima raised an eyebrow.

"What?" I asked.

Then it hit me.

"Argh! Sorry! I meant… sleeping together but not _together _together, just like, you know…!" I gesticulated wildly.

Takishima chuckled.

"_Whaaaaaaat?_" I demanded loudly.

"Oh, nothing," said Takishima airily. "Seeing your plebian simplicity never fails to entertain me."

"Argh! That's it! I challenge you! Whoever sleeps better wins!"

"And how do you propose we quantify that?"

Stupid Takishima and her logic. Logic sucks.

We did eventually get to sleep, though. I think it said a lot about just how tired I was that even though we had to share my tent, I barely felt her presence next to me at all. As soon as my head hit my sleeping bag, I fell asleep.

Funny, that. Talking with Takishima had kept me so fired up but at the same time, I had never been so relaxed.

* * *

Until I woke up of course.

Takishima was lying propped up on her elbow on her side, her hand leaning against her cheek. She was peering down at me, her gaze uncompromisingly straight. I groaned, still feeling the grogginess of sleep in my system. "What do you want, Takishima?"

"You," she said.

Then I fell asleep again and passed another couple of hours that way.

I don't know if that conversation was a dream or not. It felt very vivid when I woke up properly, feeling enormously sated but also a little fragile. Takishima wasn't inside the tent with me. It looked like she had gone out. My first impulse was to think I had slept better than she did and therefore I won the challenge, but Takishima was right. I think she's too proud to admit whenever she's wrong, anyway.

Slowly, I crawled out of my sleeping bag, inwardly cursing myself. I hadn't offered my sleeping bag to Takishima! She deserved it after all she had done for me yesterday.

Or maybe I had offered. Actually, as I searched through my somewhat foggy memories of the night before, I think I had. Takishima had refused. "You're the one who fell, fool," she had told me, and by then I was too tired to argue with her.

Now that more time had elapsed after being rescued I could still hardly believe that she had bothered looking for me. I hadn't known she had cared. Of course, we _were _childhood friends, but…

I felt warm, I guess.

I found Takishima outside the tent, cleaning up the campsite. As soon as she spotted me, she stood up. "We're leaving," she announced.

She didn't even ask me before saying that, but I guess it was okay. I wasn't against it. I'd let it slide for now.

I made my way over to her and tapped her lightly on the shoulder. "What?" she asked.

"Next time, I'll protect you."

She covered her mouth and didn't look at me.

I said to her, "Then we'll be even, okay?"

She turned around, removed her hand and, out of all the things she could have done, she smirked at me. I couldn't say I didn't see it coming, though. "If that's what makes you happy, Number Two."

That dreaded nickname!

"Sometimes, I hate you so much," I said.

"Love you too."

"I will crush you mercilessly, my eternal foe!"

I shook my fist in her general direction, but unfortunately, that didn't scare her at all…

* * *

Even later, another thought occurred to me.

"Wait," I said to her. "Did you do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on me?"

She didn't answer to that directly.

She just smiled.

**end part 1 of 3**

**Next update: **Christmas day.

**(A/N: **Squeezing 99 chapters of relationship development into three chapters. Hikaru will seem less dense than his female counterpart, but trust me, if this went on for about half as long as the original serialisation, he would most definitely be a total dumbass. And yeah, Akira and Megumi like him. As more than just a friend. Yeah, Tadashi was cockblocked. Maybe Yahiro too, not that he appears in this. Next chapter will be harem shenanigans! My body is ready.)


	2. two

**two;**

* * *

I think it's pretty obvious that Takishima Keiko is my rival and all that. But, come to think of it, I've never thought once about whether she saw me as a rival in return.

It's not healthy if it's just one-way, is it?

But if we're not rivals, what would we be, then?

* * *

After that incident in the mountains, things between me and Takishima settled down surprisingly quick. For some reason, Takishima didn't seem to tell anyone that she had saved my life, and since I didn't want to relive the embarrassment of knowing I was indebted to her, I kept my mouth shut too.

Even if things didn't change between us directly, I knew things now that I didn't know before. Even if Takishima didn't look directly at me, she still watched out for me like any good friend would. I can take care of myself generally, but for me, knowing about Takishima made me feel a little nervous. Like I had to do something back for her, but I didn't know what.

Anyway, enough about her for now. Let me talk about my other friends in S.A.

I've already mentioned Toudou, but I'm also friends with the Yamamoto siblings – Megumi and Jun – and Karino Tadashi and Tsuji Ryuu. We make a good team, the seven of us together. I think they were worried when I was gone for so long, since they kept glancing at me. I hope they weren't too upset! Since it was summer vacation, we decided to get together and go to the beach together. I was really looking forward to that since it's always fun to hang out and all.

I don't think I'll ever forget that day, not for how it started but for how it ended.

The look on Takishima's face isn't something I'm going to forget, not for a long time.

See, that's the day our relationship changed forever.

* * *

The best thing about going to the beach is building a sandcastle. I know the best ways of building a good one. Usually, you need carving tools to make a really intricate one, but with enough patience, I think anyone can do it well.

Tadashi helped me out. He's really good with this kind of stuff too. We got a bucket and some water and busied ourselves with the sand.

"What are you, five?" I heard Takishima say with a snort behind me.

I opened my mouth to utter a retort to that, but then Toudou interrupted me when she clapped her hands on my shoulders. She brought her head close to mine and asked, "Hey, can I join in?"

The more hands, the better, in my opinion.

"You'll wreck the castle," said Tadashi.

Toudou hit him for that. It's pretty common for them to do that, so I didn't really think a lot of it. Takishima didn't seem to look too happy with Toudou, though. In fact, she even sent her a greasy, which Toudou didn't seem to notice, thankfully.

I wonder why Takishima did that…?

Come to think of it, I bet she was just being a spoilsport. For someone who seems so cool all the time, she's actually a real brat on the inside. She and Toudou didn't get along anyway.

I kind of wished they could be friendlier, though. So I enthusiastically suggested we all work together. The two girls looked at me, and then they looked at each other.

"Heh, I can make my own castle," said Takishima.

"I'll just make mine with Hikaru-kun, then," said Toudou.

Huffing, the two girls crossed their arms and turned away from each other.

This wasn't working. I glanced at Tadashi, but he was working diligently on our castle and didn't seem to care about the ensuing catfight.

I had to handle this one myself. I stood up, waving my arms above my head.

"Hey, stop it, you two!"

I leaned forward to grab the girls' hands, but then I made a big mistake. Argh, I'm so clumsy.

I tripped on something hard (I think it was a seashell) and found myself sprawled on top of the castle. That was really uncomfortable. The fall was soft, but sand got all over my face and some of it even went into my mouth. The stuff tastes really brittle and bitter, yuck.

At least my hands didn't knock the buckets or land on something hard and get scratched. In fact, they fell against something really soft but not remotely sandy. It didn't feel that bad, though. Just squishy.

"I'm really sorry, Tadashi!" I yelled as I spluttered out sand. "I ruined the castle! Don't worry, we'll make an even better one!"

"Nah, don't worry," I heard Tadashi say casually. "I think there's something else you should be worried about."

"Huh…? Like what…?"

I tried to push myself up by pressing my hand against the soft surface. It actually felt firmer when I squeezed.

"_Hi…ka…ruuuuuuuuuuu!_"

That was Toudou's voice. And Takishima's too. For once, they were in synch.

Finally managing to blink the sand out of my eyes, I found myself looking into the eyes of the two girls. If they had been unhappy before, they looked to be at about boiling temperature right now.

"Haha, sorry!" I said.

"Look where your hands are, you idiot!"

"Huh?"

I looked. Then I removed my hands as if I had just been touching fire.

Would you believe where my hands had fallen? I really don't want to spell it out. Just thinking about it makes my cheeks burn! To think I had been touching both Toudou and Takishima in such an awkward area! I was so dead.

"S-S-Sorry! I swear I didn't mean it! I-I just…! _Meep_."

I noticed the two girls looking at each other, for once united by a common enemy. Namely, me. When they turned back to me, there was murder in their eyes.

With perfect timing, they beat me up at exactly the same time, with exactly the same fighting moves.

I just. I can't even find the words to describe the sensation that came over me just then. I'll just write it like this:

_owwwwww. ohhhhh goddamn it fuuuuuu-_

I'm not even hurt anymore, but when I recollect the memory… my balls.

* * *

So I gave up on the sandcastle after that. Toudou and Takishima were in a huff and didn't come near me, so I drifted over to Ryuu and the Yamamoto siblings.

That day, the beach was pretty much packed with people. It was a really nice day, barely a cloud in the sky, so no wonder, really. Most of the people were in the water, enjoying the surf, and I even spotted a few good waves here and there. But Ryuu, Jun and Megumi – they just sat by the shore quietly doing their own thing under a parasol. Megumi, I noticed, was reading a book. Jun was trying to play his violin at the beach. (To be honest, I don't really know how that works…)

"Hey, why don't you guys come into the water?" I asked them. Megumi looked up at me, blinking her wide eyes at me. She put down her book and started scribbling on her sketchpad.

That's how Megumi talks.

_I don't want to get wet_, she wrote.

I was a little disappointed, to be honest. Megumi's frilly swimsuit looked really cute, but what was the point of having a swimsuit if you didn't go into the water?

In the end, I decided to go swim by myself. I'd work on my strokes and get faster than Takishima while I was at it. Even on a day of leisure, I could never neglect my training.

I was pretty content like that for a while. I'm good at swimming and I find it kind of relaxing. There's nothing like the feeling of water around your ears; it has a way of obscuring all the noise and chatter around you. Like nothing else, it sweeps me off into a whole new world.

This was why I didn't notice that someone was in the water with me until she tapped me on my arm. It was Megumi.

"Oh, you had a change of heart, huh?"

Megumi nodded. She was floating with the aid of a rubber giraffe water toy. I waited for her to say something and watched her bring out her sketchbook…

… which turned out to be sopping wet. It was totally useless.

Yeah, we might be the smartest kids in the school, but I wouldn't say we all possess a lot of common sense. I just laughed, though, and patted Megumi on the head. "You don't have to say anything. Just swim around with me a little!"

Megumi didn't say anything, which I expected, since she saves her voice for singing. I also noticed her face was red (did she put on enough sunscreen?). Since she didn't move, either to swim closer to or away from me, I decided to splash water in her face.

She blinked.

"Heh heh! It's fun!" I insisted, grinning.

Shyly, and ever so slowly, Megumi lowered her hands into the water and then with sudden speed sprayed the amount she had gathered right at me. She was really good at it, actually. She totally caught me off-guard!

She gazed at me solemnly, and then, as if showing peeks through a crack, she broke out into a small, meek smile.

It was a lot of fun to play with her.

I felt a little better for my misdemeanours earlier, though I can't say my conscience was entirely eased. Though I may be the son of a carpenter, my father taught me how to treat a lady with respect and dignity. My father's a true gentleman; he's the man I truly respect.

"Megumi-chan, do you think… Takishima hates me?"

Megumi blinked. "Never mind," I said quickly. I didn't know why I had brought up such a question to her.

Why should I care about what Takishima thinks of me?

As soon as I thought of that, I couldn't help but recollect how she had looked when she had rescued me in the mountains…

It was pointless to think of that, though. We were rivals. Nothing would ever change that.

At that point, I decided I wanted to challenge Takishima again. Now was as good a time as any.

I tugged on Megumi's arm. "Let's play volleyball. I bet I could beat Takishima at that!"

Megumi cocked her head curiously. She followed me, though, and that made me feel better. It just goes to show, doesn't it? Sometimes, when you're confiding to someone, the other person doesn't need to say anything to cheer you up. I was definitely going to defeat Takishima one of these days – I was certain of it!

* * *

At first, Takishima wasn't very willing. At least she wasn't still mad at me.

She just shrugged and asked, "What's the point?"

Have I mentioned how mad this girl makes me? "Of course there's a point! I have to defeat you, Takishima!"

"Well, fine then," she said. "Bring it on."

Takishima never really said no to me challenging her. Maybe she was scared I would one day beat her, yep!

We quickly got things set up. I got Toudou and Tadashi on my side and Takishima got Jun and Ryuu. Megumi sat out; playing in the water before had tired her out, I guess.

Anyway, we soon got to playing, but just like any game involving me and Takishima, it quickly became less about the others and more about me and Takishima spamming attacks at each other. Or me just spamming and she just blocking me off at every turn.

I had to dig deep within the reserves of my energy. I had to push myself beyond all limits. Takishima is truly of final boss tier – and to defeat her, there was only one thing to do.

I charged up my powers and with a roar, I sent the ball flying over the net at mach speed.

"Too slow!" said Takishima as she reached the ball with ease. It was like she teleported to where it was!

"Unngghhh! Gah!" I exclaimed. I grunted in my exertion and reached a whole new level.

My muscles swelled and everything.

"It's like he's gone Super Saiyan!" I heard people say in the crowd. My battle with Takishima had attracted a lot of onlookers.

"I'll defeat you now!" I roared as I punched the ball so that it pierced the heavens.

But before my eyes, Takishima jumped and with both her hands, she dunked the ball right past me. I was stunned. The ball crashed into the sand, red hot like an iron. It was like a falling star had landed on the beach. I felt it sizzling, even metres away where I stood.

"Damn you, Takishima." She only had to win one more point and it was all over.

It was then that it happened.

There were girls giggling in the crowd. I didn't pay attention to what they were saying because I was concentrating really hard on the game. Later on, Tadashi said they were talking about me, saying they were really impressed or something. He said they wanted my phone number.

Takishima's got almost superhuman hearing, in my opinion, so I guess she might have heard that. The thought is kind of embarrassing, actually. I can't think of any other reason why she would suddenly go red in the face and miss the ball altogether. I only worked that out later, though. I was in the Zone, for the most part.

It's hard to describe. I wasn't even thinking about defeating Takishima. I just stopped thinking altogether. My body just kept on moving and I could dimly feel myself nailing every shot. If I had stopped to think about how well I was doing, my sudden spurt of talent would have ended.

That's why, when it happened…

"Hanazono, did you just…?"

"What? What did I do?"

There was silence then, between me and Takishima.

… I had no idea how to react.

* * *

I don't really know _why _I want to defeat Takishima. Sure, she's been better than me ever since we were kids, but does that really say anything? It's not like I'm second in the entire world, you know, and Takishima is on top. We've always been near each other, so that's why we keep coming against each other. If Takishima were to suddenly vanish, that wouldn't suddenly make me the best at everything, is what I'm trying to say.

It's just… it's always been Takishima. When we're not fighting, we're hanging out with everyone else in S.A., just like the time in the beach before the volleyball match. And even if Takishima's infuriating, she's fun to talk to as well. Smart and all that. So it's not like some personal grudge match between us.

I always thought that, if I were to ever beat Takishima, it would be with trumpet fanfares playing in the background, everything just coming together miraculously for that one scene. I'd visualised the moment so many times in my head. Heck, I've even fallen asleep to it and dreamed about it. It would be the climax of my life, the happiest moment ever.

I never thought about what would happen afterwards.

I never thought about what I wanted to do for my _own _sake.

So it might be a little strange to anyone reading this, that I found myself relieved when I found out Takishima was really distracted by those girls during our match. That meant she wasn't playing at her best and it wasn't a true confrontation between us. I don't know what I would have done otherwise. It was like, deep down, I'd always accepted her as being the best.

But I don't want to think about that. Because if I accept something like that, what does my entire life even mean?

If I'm just chasing after Takishima, knowing that I'll never reach her, I don't know, but that just sounds tragic.

I hate thinking about things like that.

But that doesn't stop me from being glad afterwards that the outcome wasn't _real_.

* * *

Of course, I didn't know all that then.

After a few moments, my instincts kicked in and I did what I'd prepared for in a situation like this. I cheered and pumped my fist because – well, do I really need to explain? Weirdly enough, when I think about that moment in retrospect, it feels like a blur. I can't capture exactly how I felt in words. It was all kind of dizzying. I can't even decide whether I was happy or not in that moment.

But even during that initial euphoria (or whatever it was), I noticed Takishima. It was her that stands out to me, just like it had always been. She was standing very still, her expression completely calm – too calm. Like she was forcing that on herself. There was something cautious and tentative about the way she peered at me, her arms limply by her side and her shoulders slacked downwards.

"Congratulations, Hikaru," she said, and with that she turned her back to me and walked away.

I'll never forget how lost and defeated she was in that moment. Not like a sore loser at all, but like she had lost her only friend in the world.

**end part 2 of 3**

**Next update: **Early-mid January.

**(A/N: **This was a plot I've always wanted to write. Genderbending has nothing to do with it.)


	3. three

**three;**

* * *

So, basically, I beat Takishima.

It still feels weird when I look at those words. All my life I'd looked forward to beating Takishima.

Bummer. Now I've forgotten what I wanted to write.

* * *

For at least a whole week, my head was up in the clouds. I was in a really good mood. I've never been the kind of guy to think that life sucks, but at that point I was convinced that everything was totally awesome. I didn't see Takishima around anywhere, but I didn't really mind. It wasn't really my intention to gloat about winning to her. I just… well… I felt pretty proud of myself, you know? Part of it didn't have anything to do with her at all.

To me, she was just an obstacle, something to be overcome.

After that, there was nothing, because Takishima was the highest anyone could go.

At least, that's what I've always felt.

Anyway, Toudou was pretty happy for me too. She'd always said that Takishima deserved to lose sometime. I agree with her, since I'd never seen Takishima lose before.

At some point, it started to worry me. The thought slowly crept up on me. What if Takishima took it all personally? Sure, it was her I wanted to beat, but it wasn't because I _hated _her. It wasn't that I wanted to beat her down or act condescending the next time I saw her. That would be pretty low of me, you know? No way I could act like that.

At the same time, it didn't seem like her to just avoid me. Seriously, what's up with that? It wasn't like she ever had a problem talking to me before.

Takishima… I just couldn't read her.

* * *

Let me write down a story about our childhood. I already mentioned how we first met and how we were pretty much rivals from the beginning.

Despite that, soon after we met, I did want to be her friend. I just… didn't know how to express that very well, come to think of it. I always challenged her to races around town. It was the only way I could bring myself to talk to her, by trying to beat her. I wanted to be around with her a lot. Maybe doing that would make me smarter and stronger too!

Takishima was a genius even when she was a kid. At least, she was better than me. Even then, I thought about ways to catch her off-guard. But, looking back, I think we were just playing a lot of games together.

So anyway, there was this time back in grade school when I asked Takishima to climb trees with me. A race of who got to the top first. I totally had that in the bag – Takishima was going down! – except she was up at the top before I could blink.

"Hey! I bet you cheated!" I yelled out to her, shaking my fist.

"I don't cheat," she said haughtily. "Do you want me to go easy on you?"

"Not on your life!"

"Good. I don't wanna go easy."

She was sitting up really near the top of the tree. We were just kids, so we didn't know what would happen, but that was when the branch snapped and she started tumbling down.

That really scared me. I ran right over to her and flailed by arms trying to catch her. But when she landed, she accidentally kicked me in the face and fell all over me. It wasn't exactly comfortable for each of us.

I said, "Hey, are you okay?"

She was quiet for a moment. "You didn't catch me properly," she said.

Takishima was never happy with whatever I did. At least, that was what I thought. "You have to do it the right way," she went on.

"What's the right way?"

"Hold me tighter."

She said this in a pretty commanding way. "I don't have to do that!" I insisted, because it was embarrassing.

Then she said, "Otherwise, you won't win."

So of course I wrapped my arms around her tightly. I grinned a lot, feeling like I'd won. "Like this?"

That was when Takishima used my strength against me and used a judo throw on me. It didn't hurt since the grass was soft, but it was a real surprise. I coughed and spluttered and everything.

"What was that for?!"

She just laughed at me. "If you can't hold me properly, you have to keep coming after me."

"That's a challenge!" I exclaimed, pointing my finger at her. "I'll get you one day!"

She just smiled and told me to do my best.

I bet she was making fun of me then. But I guess a part of me didn't mind. I _liked _chasing after her. Maybe she liked being chased by me.

Yeah… I guess it was something like that.

* * *

I saw Takishima today. Urk, I think she was being kind of cold to me…

See, today, we were doing a math test. I take my time with tests and try to check over them when I'm done and still have time. Takishima usually does hers quickly, but today, she did a 10-page test in five minutes. I don't know how she manages it.

But when she was done, I swear she turned around and just _looked _at me. I really don't know what that look meant at all… I don't know how to describe it. It was like she was piercing me with those eyes, or maybe trying to ask something of me. A question I didn't know the answer to. I just didn't know what to say. Besides, this was all during a test. I just looked down and stared at my pencil and for some reason, I felt guilty.

Guilty for beating her…? How could that be right? What had I done wrong?

Later on, I heard Takishima made a mistake on the test, because she'd been writing so fast. That was the second time I beat her.

* * *

I was hanging out with the S.A. today after school, but Takishima wasn't with us. Now I was seriously getting worried.

"Do you guys know what happened to her?" I asked my friends. "Takishima's been acting strange."

The others looked worried too. Even easy-going Tadashi had a pensive look on his face.

"I guess it's because of what happened at the beach…" Toudou said, rubbing the back of her head ruefully.

"Crap," I said. "Is it my fault?"

_We didn't know she'd react like that_, Megumi wrote.

That was it. I stood up, slamming the table with my heads. I even pumped my fists in my resolve. "I've gotta talk to her!"

Then I jumped and ran right out the door with all of my fiery passion!

Sure, I really don't know what was going on inside Takishima's head, but I was sure I needed to be by her side. We're friends, you know? And I'd promised to protect her too, because I owe her one.

This was just something between me and her. I couldn't let something as stupid as winning get between us. All those years Takishima had beaten me and I'd stayed with her… I didn't want any of that to change. I really, really meant what I thought.

I was running really fast down the corridor even though I wasn't supposed to be doing that. I also wasn't looking where I was going at all. That's why something really embarrassing happened that really got in the way of all the resolve and determination I was feeling.

I was running so hard I bumped into a girl as I was turning the corner. I didn't even have time to swerve out of the way or anything. And I was running so hard I rammed right into her and we both ended up crashing to the floor.

There I was, collapsed on top of her. Argh, not this again! At least my hand didn't end up in any weird places. The awkward part was that: The girl's skirt had flown up in the fall and my knee was accidentally pinning it up. I could… well… I could kind of see her… you know…

I tried very hard to ignore it, as any good person would. "Uh, I'm really sorry! Are you okay? Sorry, I can be a little hot-headed and I just tend to go for things straight away without really-"

The girl was blushing really hard. "You're so bold! Are you asking me out?"

"Huh?" I said. "What?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly noticed Takishima walk into view. She looked around, saw me and my, uh, _situation_, and then promptly turned around and went back where she came from.

I stood up. "W-Wait, Takishima!"

"Please accept my love for you!" the girl behind me cried. I felt bad for ignoring her.

Still, I had to start running again so I could catch up with Takishima. "Mail it!" I called out to the girl behind me. "If it's express post, it'll get where you need it to be. You have to keep the postmen in business!" I saluted and ran.

It was really disappointing. When I looked for Takishima, she was already gone. The hallway was empty.

Damn it!

"Takishima, where are you?"

I started looking in the classrooms one by one.

"Takishima!"

I really wanted to see her.

I really, really wanted to see her.

But she wasn't there. I couldn't find her no matter where I looked.

It didn't matter to me. I'd just keep looking until I found her.

In the end, I asked around. Nobody said they'd seen Takishima. So I went outside and started looking around the school yard. No one there either. No one in the library, no one in the cafeteria. The school was full of people but it might as well have been completely empty to me. My heart was thumping really hard in my chest, like it was bleeding from all the anticipation and disappointment. I'd never felt this way before.

Did Takishima not want to see me anymore?

No, I couldn't afford to think about that. It was my duty to chase her. Had been, right from the very beginning. I clenched my fist and kept on looking. The gym was empty; so was the swimming pool.

Finally, I ended up on the school rooftop. Just as I was opening the door, I could hear voices.

I recognised them; they were the guys from the B class. It sounded like they were talking to someone.

"Didn't you lose? You know the deal. If you lose, you'll have to date one of us."

"There is no deal." That was Takishima's voice!

I swung open the door immediately. "Takishima!" I cried out. I felt my heart heave with relief. "There you are!"

The boys turned their heads and looked at me. I realised with a start that they had all been surrounding Takishima, who was shorter than them all by about a head. There were three guys standing there.

I blinked. It was windy up on the rooftop and Takishima's long hair swished silently. She looked at me and then looked down, her fine, thin eyebrows creasing in a frown.

I think that was her way of apologising.

"What's going on here?" I demanded.

"Nice timing, Hanazono," said one of the guys, the one with the glasses. "Now you can hear Takishima's decision along with us."

"Huh? Decision?"

"Didn't you know? If Takishima ever loses her number one ranking…"

Takishima rolled her eyes. "That's just something they made up." But she was still frowning, hugging her chest with her slim arms.

I couldn't help but think she looked… well… _vulnerable_.

"Hey, stop it, you guys!" I called out. "You're obviously lying, so bugger off!"

"You know what she said?" said the guy in the hoodie. "She said she'd only date someone who was her equal."

I looked from Takishima to the B class guys. I'd always vaguely known Takishima was pretty popular from what the other guys said, but I hadn't known she'd said anything like that. It sounded pretty snobbish of her.

"I bet she said that to get you off her back," I said.

"Aren't you interested in her yourself?" said the blonde guy. "Why else would you want to beat her…?"

Takishima looked at me, blinking.

"Haha! No way!" I said, laughing. "Takishima's my rival!"

"Oh wow," said the hoodie guy to Takishima. "Burned."

"Shut up," said Takishima.

"Takishima will always be my rival," I went on. I knew I had to get this off my chest. These were my true feelings, after all. I didn't want Takishima to hate me or anything. I just wanted her near me again. "She'll always be like that to me. It doesn't matter what she does. I'll always challenge her again. Because… because we'll always be together like that!"

"Huh," said Takishima dryly. She looked a little red in the face as she said that, though. Maybe being on the rooftop gave her a fever or something. I'd have to take care of that later.

"So you losers can step off," I went on loudly. "No one can be Takishima's equal."

At that moment, Takishima stepped on my foot. Ouch, that hurt. "Fool," Takishima said.

I was so confused. Here I was sticking up for her but she looked perfectly capable of handling herself. It didn't look like she appreciated anything I said. "Huh…? What's the big idea…?"

Then she kissed me.

It hit me like a sucker punch. I couldn't say I saw that coming _at all_.

A part of me couldn't help but think immediately that her lips were soft, though…

But before I could properly react she quickly pulled back, looking exasperated. "This is why you're a fool," she said. And then, just like that, she stomped off the rooftop.

She just… left me there.

It was only when she was gone that my brain jerked into gear. "Huh? Wait. Stop! Takishima! Come back!"

Silence greeted me. That and the howl of the wind.

"So, um," I said. "What just happened?" My cheeks still felt hot.

I turned around and saw three boys ignited by the flame of their rage.

"Uh, what?" I asked.

"_Hanazonooooooooooo! _Why are _you _the one she likes?!"

"No seriously," I said. "I don't get it. Why are you leaving me outta this?"

* * *

It was confusing when Takishima kissed me. I'd never been kissed by anyone before and it just didn't seem like something she would do. I don't know why she called me a fool either. I know people have said I'm stupid, but I always thought when she said that, it was just to make fun of me. Up on the rooftop, it looked like she was upset more than anything. It's hard to tell because she's so good at keeping a poker face.

I just knew that I had even _more _to apologise for now. Somehow, I'd made things worse by telling her my feelings. Damn, this was hard.

It was on my way down from the rooftop that I bumped into Toudou and Megumi. "Oh, hi there, you guys," I said glumly. "Have you seen Takishima?"

The two girls glanced at each other.

"Look, Hikaru-kun," she said seriously to me. "There's something we need to tell you."

_Listen well_, Megumi wrote.

"I'm listening," I said. Man, so many weird conversations in one day!

"Do you understand what it means to like someone?" Toudou asked me.

"Sure I do," I said. "I like you and I like Megumi-chan and everyone else."

Toudou and Megumi looked at each other and sighed simultaneously.

"What?" I asked.

Toudou inhaled deeply. "I hate to say this but…"

_You are a dumbass._

I wrinkled my nose at Megumi's sign. I'd never seen her use that kind of language before. "Gee, thanks, you two. What's with the insults suddenly?"

That's when they started to explain it to me.

"There's a deeper kind of like," Toudou began. "The kind of like when you want to, well, _date _someone."

I thought back to the boys on the rooftop. They'd wanted to date Takishima. Thinking back on it, the idea did not sit right with me. "Yeah, so…?"

"That's the way Keiko likes you."

I blinked.

I felt the thudding of my own heart.

"What?" I said, incredulously.

"It's not just liking," Toudou went on.

_It's love_, Megumi wrote.

It felt like the world became really tiny and constrained in that moment. I didn't know how to think or anything. It was like some kind of dam broke inside my chest and a sickening kind of goo filled me up.

Strangely enough, I didn't think it was a bad feeling, no matter how weird it was. It was, out of all things, _warm_. This idea.

"L-Love?"

"Yeah," said Toudou, nodding. "I think she thinks that since you've beaten her, you don't want to be with her anymore."

"But… I said…"

"You're rivals?" Toudou peered at me sternly. "Is that all you want to be?"

Her words felt so confronting. Every plane of existence in my world was being tilted and skewed on angles I didn't recognise anymore.

"What do I do, Toudou?" I asked, hearing the panic in my voice.

"Think for a second," she said. "Think about how you see her."

"How I see her…?"

"Even though you've beaten her, you still think of her as an obstacle – as someone _perfect_ – don't you? Are you really seeing her for her?"

I took a step back. The words cut deep.

It was like every interaction I'd ever had with Takishima played out in my head within five seconds. I could see her smirk, her beautiful skin, her rosy lips, even recollect the scent of her…

What was all that to me?

Chasing her in the trees… wrestling matches… test after test after test…

Always second best to her…

And then all of a sudden I saw the image of her after she'd saved me in the mountains. The look on her face. Her anger. Her concern. They way she'd looked at me.

"You're wrong," I said suddenly. My voice came across strongly. "Takishima is more than just a rival to me."

Toudou's eyes flickered. Was it just me, or did she look a little melancholy? But before I could place the emotion, she was beaming at me, and it was with genuine pride.

"Go chase her then," she whispered in my ear.

* * *

I found her outside sitting under the shade of a tree, staring outside the schoolyard and at a blue sky beyond both our understanding.

"Takishima!" I cried out, reaching for her.

She turned her head and looked at me. Involuntarily, her hand went to her mouth.

The memory of her kissing me was searing and threatened to bowl me over once again. I braced myself and stood firm.

"Takishima," I went on. "You're my rival, but…"

"I know," she said shortly, crossly.

She wasn't listening to me. My heart sank. I had to get through to her.

"I know you're not perfect," I insisted. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry for idealising you as someone who you're not."

Takishima's lips parted and then she pursed them, not saying anything. She looked down at the grass, her expression completely even.

Meanwhile, my heart just kept on thumping frantically. I'd never realised what an effect this girl and her beauty had over me.

"You know what?" I said, stepping closer to her. "I don't care. You don't have to be perfect! I don't care if you're mad at me, or if you think I'm an idiot… I'll still… I'll always…!"

"What, Hikaru?"

Now she was looking at me straight in the eyes.

I couldn't talk so loudly anymore. I could hardly look at her so calmly like she looked at me.

"I'll always chase you…"

She stared at me as I said that. I began to feel as if I'd said something totally wrong.

And then she laughed. I'd never seen her laugh like that before.

"You really are a fool, Hikaru."

But I couldn't say anything to that. My breath was caught in my throat.

Takishima's laughter was beautiful. It was like listening to peals from a bell. Her hand covered her mouth again, and her eyes crinkled and shone a little more. Like stars, I thought.

I think that's the moment when I realised. The knowledge wasn't like anything I'd ever studied for in a test. It was something that left me totally and utterly breathless.

I realised I was in love with her.

* * *

I found out the next day that it was actually the math teacher who had made a mistake correcting the test. Takishima had scored one hundred percent and the rest of us had dropped a mark.

Darn it, Takishima!

Afterword

Thanks for reading all the way to the end of this story! Truth be told, I never did anticipate this story becoming popular in the slightest; there is almost no crossover between the target audience of a harem story and the readers of S.A. fanfiction, so it touches me that you'd read this at all.

I won't deny this was very low-brow fiction. I like to think it offers a glimpse of what story S.A. could have been if it was published for a shonen demographic. In much the same way the original story is a stereotypical in its execution, I wanted this story to capture a similar feeling, only under an altered setting. Had this not been my aim, I would probably have written this with a lot more restraint – as it stands, it is what it is. I do profess to having a guilty pleasure for ecchi content. Writing this was something new for me, so even if I never write anything quite like this again, I'll put this down as a positive experience. I can only hope it is the same for you, the reader.

I'm listing this story as complete, but actually, there's going to be one more chapter. It turns out this chapter didn't have nearly as much ecchi as I wanted it to have, so I've decided to make up for it with a bonus fanservice chapter. It'll be out in late January or early February. The plot itself, of course, ends here, so I thought I'd leave my ramblings here. Until the bonus chapter, see you!


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